ANGRY CUSTOMERS BLAST AREA CODE CHANGES

Wilma Randle, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Business owner Fred Scola says the recent changes in the area code system are wreaking havoc on his suburban auto repair business.

Scola, 29, and his brother, Gino, 33, own GTM Automotive & Tire Inc., a 6-year-old operation at 1803 W. Wise Rd. in Schaumburg. Not only did the business get a new area code this year, it was one of more than 20,000 suburban telephone customers who, for technical reasons, also were given new telephone prefixes.

But since the 847 area code went into effect permanently about two weeks ago, business at his shop has nearly come to a halt, Scola said Friday.

"It happened so quickly I almost didn't notice it--but last week, last Thursday, I realized the telephone just wasn't ringing the way it usually does."

Things got so bad last Saturday, usually his busiest day, that he let one of his five full-time service people go home early. And this past week he's had people on staggered shifts--all because there hasn't been enough work, he said.

"It takes me an average of 20 customers a day to survive and we've been doing two or three a day. And this is not just because we've hit a slump. Until this phone number change thing happened, our business was booming," he said. So much so that the firm had just opened another location in Hanover Park.

Scola's complaints were echoed by neighboring businesses along the Wise Road strip.

A few doors away, at Traffic Jam, an automobile detailing and audio shop, the problem hasn't been a lack of phone calls but an abundance of wrong number callers, said Debbie Yonkee, who oversees the shops' administrative operations.

Just across the road, the Eye Boutique says it has had lots of complaints from customers who say their calls are not going through.

"The whole thing is a major headache," said Michael Eannarino, whose family operates E&E Auto Care at 1600 W. Wise Rd. "People are having trouble reaching us and it's definitely been affecting our normal flow of business."

When Scola contacted Ameritech about the problem, he said he got little response.

The auto shop is the centerpiece of a small auto care strip mall on Wise Road in Schaumburg.

Ameritech spokeswoman Lisa Kim said the telephone company is investigating Scola's complaints along with others it has received about this matter.

"Every call we get to our 6-1-1 service we're putting a trace on to find out if it's an Ameritech problem or if the source is somewhere else, say with the PBX switching system or the local or long distance carrier," Kim said.

In Scola's case, the telephone company doesn't know what's causing his service problems, she said. Calls to his old number should automatically be rerouted to his new number, she said.

Scola said it's not working that way at his business--at least not consistently.

"Sometimes people can't get through using the new number, so they dial the old number and that may or may not work," he said.